Another week, another inexplicable refereeing decision.
On the general balance of play I don’t begrudge Newcastle the win. Wolves improved after the break and had their say in the game but were always living on the edge defensively.
What I do have a problem with is Nick Pope clearing Raul Jimenez out and both referees somehow coming to the conclusion it wasn’t the most blatant penalty in the history of football.
Maybe that’s a slight exaggeration but it’s got to be given. If multiple angles showing a clear foul weren’t enough the resigned look on Pope’s face should have been.
I believe I’m correct in saying that would have been both a penalty and a sending off with Pope not making an attempt for the ball, so it was a pivotal moment that would have turned the game aggressively in our favour.
It wasn’t the only decision that went against us either, with a couple of questionable calls in the build up to their opener.
Having navigated a pummeling in the run up to half time, punctuated only by a superb Podence effort that nearly brought an unlikely equaliser, the start to the second half was much brighter.
Pedro Neto looked a lot sharper than last week and the team played more cohesively with him linking the play down the right.
When Hwang bundled in the leveller it felt like the game was there for us to go on and win.
But Lopetegui’s attempt to repeat last week’s magic trick of moving to a back three went south with the team weaker at both ends after the change.
Ait-Nouri was missing in action for their winning goal and offered zero going forward to compensate. Nunes too jogged around and added nothing other than collecting the ball from defenders and passing it right back to them.
With the five subs already deployed it did feel like the game was up at that point and so it proved.
We pushed right to the end and can take solace from another closely fought game against top of the table opposition, but it definitely goes down as a missed opportunity for a much needed point.
Layer in the injustice of that first half incident and it’s another hard pill to swallow.
Just add the VAR/Ref decision to the never ending list of injustice against Wolves. I agree we weren’t brilliant but these things are a turning point in games.The free kick for their goal. Not a free kick. Where is VAR? I thought for 20 odd mins second half we gained the ascendancy. I thought we might be the team to nick it. Then Almiron shot wasn’t going in took a deflection. Goal. So we weren’t brilliant. Still some massive decisions going against us. Could have been an entirely different outcome. Re the non penalty. You could tell from the guilty look on Pope’s face that he knew he was in the wrong. But the clowns in the middle couldn’t. Wouldn’t???? See it.
COD.
I don’t disagree. I am very reluctantly coming round to the possibility that our beautiful game is riddled with serial corruption, but probably more likely individual back door stuff is going on ad hoc.
But I can’t think of any reason for us being singled out for special treatment..
So first for our own survival we need to look out for ourselves by scoring more goals. Simples!
Agreed mate
I think the reason is that the refs really don’t like us and here comes the controversial bit, I can understand why. Even I’m getting a bit fed up of the constant whining to the refs on every decision and we are worse than most. I love Neves to bits, but how many of his 9 yellows are for dissent? I can’t remember the last decision against us where at least 3 or 4 of our lads didn’t run up and complain, even obvious fouls from us. I genuinely think that and the perennial play acting by some (Podence is a shocker!) has annoyed them and we are paying the price with hardly any 50/50 calls going our way. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not right and I’m fecking fuming at the constant injustices, but I can see why refs don’t like us, we must be a nightmare to ref as we complain about absolutely every decision…….
Cheated yet again by the officials. They’re never gonna get this VAR right, but they won’t abolish it. So bloody frustrating.
I have to agree Thomas, the Pope incident showed yet again what an open-ended thing the “Not a clear and obvious error” condition is. In the Alice books Humpty Dumpty says that when he uses a word it means exactly what he wants it to mean. In VAR terms the “clear and obvious” wording gives them licence to do exactly what they need to do to cover up the most inexplicable – and unsupportable – decisions.
It was interesting to see he reverse angle on Raul’s tackle that ledto the free kick they scored their first goal from – he actually got to the ball first and it should not have been a free kick. When the ball came across, the scorer pushed Jonny hard enough to make him step forward and leave him with a clear header. A pundit commented that it was just a little push. Does anyone happen to know how big a push has to be before it becomes a foul?? Humpty Dumpty again.
For me the game was conducted in a very poor spirit – best example Callum Wilson tripping Sa to prevent a counter attack. By the time the free kick was taken, their defence was, naturally, back in place.
Nice to see Neto running around quite brightly, even though not much resulted.
COYW
If that push had been made by a defender then the ball would have been on that spot in the centre of the box 12 yards from goal
The manager has to take so of the blame for this loss and performance. As soon as we scored he changed it we were in the ascendency and the reshuffle and subs gave the wrong message to our players and Newcastle.
And that message was we are going to sit back and defend…..which then gave Newcastle the green light to come at us.
Hwang finally scored a goal, the first from a Wolves forward in over a year is a shocking record when you consider over a hundred million pounds has been spent on the forward line in the last twelve months £42 million which we have agreed for the brasilian lad who IMO is not a natural striker.
The bebate regarding recruitment is for another day but I cannot help but feel we could over got a better more natural striker closer to home for our money and not had to fork out over a hundred million.
Ings for £15m!
Can’t argue with a word written above by Thomas but can only add by saying that from where I sit we really have to question the integrity of those involved in on field and Stockley Park decision making. It needs to be examined by external investigators not Howard Webb. Clear penalty and red card for Pope.
Having said that we just aren’t good enough. 20 goals in 27 games is simply inadequate which is why we are still hovering just above the relegation zone. And the underlying reason for that is the money squandered on mediocre mainly Iberian players at vastly overrated prices by Jeff Shi and his “recruitment” staff like Sellars and Hobbs. Even in Jan. we forked out a club record for a forward who doesn’t look remotely like scoring a goal and have added to our collective squad of “midielders”.
I really don’t know what’s going on at our football club.
Not Lopetegui’s fault he can only work with the tools he is given, but I doubt whether he’ll want to continue doing it if we are relegated.
I’m not sure about that PJB re : your comment about : ‘ can only work with the tools he is given ‘ ?
We have so much talent to work with sitting on the bench ‘ gathering ‘ splinters – I’d have Nunes playing from the start every game and encouraging him to be the ‘ main man ‘ darting forward at pace, but for some reason he’s a shadow of the player he was – think he’s got Liverpool on his mind all the time and will surely move in the Summer – if so JL must ditch him now till the summer and try some other formation – don’t know Joao Gomes what must be thinking now re : game time etc ?
There’s something basically wrong about JL’s initial team selection – why does he keep persisting with Moutinho all the time – with so many alternatives on the bench ?
JL’s subs have been inspiring at half – time, but it is starting to look like he’s not selecting the right – line up from the off and it’s just a matter of ‘ playing ‘ catch-up ‘ all the time later in the game – which is deeply frustrating !
Chris
To a certain extent you have answered your own post.
Nunes, like Guedes, never wanted to be here. The rest are largely a homogenous collection of Portuguese second string Mendes clients.
We can only assume that he thinks the “ancient” Moutinho is better than the other options. He’s been given a daunting task to dig us out of this Mendes inspired mess so I say good luck to him.
I agree that Moutinho is probably best in the last 30 minutes but today he was our best player from the start. Simple. Lamina was shocking in comparison.
Let’s not go overboard here, we were in this game up till the end, the teams around us have the same problem.
We are doing good.
Enjoyed a evenly balanced game, bot not the bent officials.
Bring on Leeds, still remember the last game of the season, all those years ago. Win the League, they were having a laugh.?
Yes, yet again we were robbed by a biased referee — but why should we expect anything different?
But the real reason for our defeat surely has more to do with the team selection. I believe that this game was pretty much lost before it began.
Think back one week when Raoul played out of his skin and was rightly lauded for his massively improved form. This materialized from the fact that for the first time in many months he was played alongside a strike partner in Cunha, rather than being played as a lone striker. There was evidence that Cunha also benefitted from this partnership so that the future with regard to scoring potential looked far brighter.
Move on one week. Inexplicably Raoul was selected as a forlorn lone striker with Cunha left sitting abjectly on the bench. Why are we paying forty three million for a striker who following one very promising game is not selected, when our major issue remains the inability to score?
For today`s game we started with pretty much the same lightweight attacking option as had failed so miserably during the latter part of Bruno`s tenure and pre our January window attempts to solve the non scoring issue. So just who or how did we expect to score today ? I for one, am mystified.
It is surely the case that strike partnerships develop only as a result of the two guys paying consistently together. As evidence, we have only to think back to the highly productive partnership Raoul was able to develop with Jota.
To chop and change from week to week is a recipe for disaster. Unless we somehow resolve this issue PDQ, we will continue to struggle — and time is not on our side.
Mike
I know you won’t agree but surely Fabio would be abetter bet than the current batch of half arsed “forwards”. But for his own sake he’s probably well off elsewhere. Will add Neto is the potential exception when fit.
Hey PJB let`s not go there. Fabio, the would be wonder boy, may well be better than some of the dross that we currently call forwards, but that`s not saying very much !! With the exception of Neto- assuming he can regain full fitness — we don`t have much to boast about !!
I would suggest that he last thing we want at this point is to bank our future on another very average Iberian, who in my humble opinion will never hack it in the Premier league. Surely better that we get whatever knock down fee we can for Silva and let him become someone else`s problem, whilst we move ahead and try to get a proven striker.
Should, we survive the season as a Premiership club surely the only way forward must be to abandon our crap recruitment policy including our over dependence on Mendez , and to begin over. Our coach needs to have independence to select players he believes will suit his plans — and this will likely have the added benefit of costing the club far less than we have been currently forking out for very modest performers — example Guedes and Nunes
Basically we’re on the same page again Mike.
Who exactly is this proven striker, Mike? Names please. Chelsea would like to know too aswell as many other teams. It’s ok to regularly spout off about a missing striker but proven goalscorers at the top level don’t exactly grow on trees. The best teams already have them. That’s why we have to concentrate on young talent in the hope that they will develop.
Pad Ant I agree with your philosophy. But the realty is that presently we appear not to have any up and coming talented striker available to us. If you think otherwise, names please.
Fabio Silva cost us a small fortune, and never during the time with us did he remotely live up to the hype. Even with Anderlecht playing in a poor quality league the coach quickly decided he was not up to standard, and his loan was cut short. The fact is that we grossly overpaid for a very modest footballer who in the opinion of many will never make the grade in the premier league.
Is the failed boy wonder one of the talented few who you want us to develop to solve our woeful lack of goals ? Surely you can`t be serious
The reality is that somehow before next season we have to find someone from somewhere who has some idea how to put the ball in the net. If we can`t, we`re doomed to another perilous season
I agree Mike that our recruitment of youngsters hasn’t exactly worked but you can’t say the club hasn’t tried with Silva, Cutrone and the Ecuadorian las whose name escapes me. Its just so difficult. I see that you too seem to find it difficult to come up with a name.
Viktor Gyokeres for one – proven agile goal-scorer – a snip at £15 million from Coventry – who could easily step up to the premiership and although heavily linked with him in January – we did nothing..
Every middle to lower premier league club has been looking at Gyokores but none has bitten. Possibly there’s a reason. I’ve watched him a lot recently and certainly has potential but is he the answer for those that want a proven goalscorer at this level? I think not. Worth a punt? Possibly. He’d cost more than £15m though.
Agree Mike.
Julian picked the wrong starting 11, starting Adama was a mistake he is better coming on in the secound half when the opponents defenders are tiring.
And yes why have we paid £43 Million for another bench warmer same with Gomes does Julian not rate then……Raul is not suited to the lone striker role I don’t think any striker is Kane is a great striker he was up front on his own last week against U.S. and only had a couple of half chances.
Julian needs to get agrip stick settle on a formation which suites our players and play two up front, other wise what was the point in bringing players if your not going to play them.
Gomes is raring to go you could see what it meant to him at Southampton but he hasn’t had a sniff since Lamna for me hasn’t done much since he arrived.
It’s frustrating we buy these players and don’t play them or when we do they are played out of there normal position.
Julian needs to get agrip…….and soon
Gomes is still struggling with the ankle injury picked up a couple of weeks ago. He was only on the bench because of Sarabia’s injury.
Absolutely spot on summary Thomas. Thank you.
Very little to add except the obvious; winning our next 2 games is even more critical following other results from the weekend. Both 6 pointers v Leeds and Forest.
I don’t subscribe to conspiracy theories or corruption regarding referee decisions in the Premier League. That’s absolute nonsense. However, that was another shocking, awful decision today. Truly mind boggling how the incident wasn’t reviewed. It is incompetence and inconsistency. Dreadfully poor standards. And we seem to be on the wrong end of these poor decisions far too often.
Keep the faith.
UTW
I’m sure you’re right Muttleigh. No Saudi petrodollars swilling around the Newcastle changing rooms.
Yes of course. I totally understand your indisputable logic. Newcastle’s owners are mega rich therefore the officials have been paid to let them win.
And your proof is …… ?
Muttleigh, No proof as yet, but I for one do not believe in endless coincidences.
Week after week teams in the lower half of the table– including us –are on the wrong side of key decisions. It is happening far too regularly to be mere chance. So, reluctantly, I agree with PJB and others on this site that VAR is not being fairly operated. An independent investigation is urgently called for
Newcastle deserved the win but we will never know what could have been if a penalty had been awarded and Pope red carded. And it should have been both.
II make no apologies if people disagree with this, but it’s my view. Simply pointing out that Newcastle’s owners are the richest anywhere, therefore the officials are corrupt, without a shred of evidence , is just lazy thinking.
No evidence. No proof. Just theories from disgruntled fans.
I’d welcome a thorough, unbiased and unfettered investigation into professional refereeing and VAR. Absolutely. And if corruption is uncovered, the guilty should face the severest of punishments.
However, there is a far more likely and plausible reason why we feel so cheated by VAR and refereeing decisions. Aside from the fact we mainly focus on our own team’s disappointments. Poor standards, yes, incompetence definitely, but the No1 most likely explanation – unconscious bias towards “bigger clubs”.
“Unconscious bias is when we make judgments or decisions on the basis of our prior experience, our own personal deep-seated thought patterns, assumptions or interpretations, and we are not aware that we are doing it.”
It’s a disgrace that so many mistakes are made when so much is on the line. It’s not just football. It’s people’s livelihoods and the amount of money that’s involved is astronomical.
But just ask yourself this. With all of the investigative journalists, publications, freelancers, and other interested parties involved in the game, how is it no wrongdoing has been uncovered?
It wouldn’t be hard to uncover widespread corruption. Not with the amount of data that floats in the ether. So if you think it’s corrupt, I disagree. I think it’s piss poor human incompetence.
On the subject of JL – he’s been brilliant for us so far but he’s only human and not infallible. If we survive this season, we will be only the 4th team to have been bottom at Christmas and avoid the dreaded R. The others ? Since ‘92, WBA, Leicester and Sunderland.
Finally, as has been pointed out, after the weekend results, yes, the next two games, both absolute 100% “six pointers “.
UTW
If you can find me forensic analysis of referees of a similar depth to the players anywhere online i’d be really interested to see it Muttleigh.
Unconscious bias at this level? Surely that’s the whole point of what a ref is supposed to be, a neutral ajudicator.
Regrettably unconscious bias is in all walks of life. Professional and otherwise.
Football stars tabloid dirt sells papers. Young, more money than sense etc. Easy pickings.
Boring middle aged refs won’t get attention. Unless there is high level corruption. Then it would be HUGE news. Massive. So I think it’s something that would be relatively easy to uncover and worth the investigators investment by many orders of magnitude. Money/favors leave digital trails everywhere nowadays. Surveillance is incredibly effective for anyone looking. And you think no one is ?
And yet, nothing.
As I say, piss poor refereeing, yes. Unacceptable standards absolutely. Needs investigation- yes. Certainly requires big changes and improvement. Corruption ? Show me the proof in Europe’s biggest sport, where no one has been able to point to anything to suggest high level
corruption, widespread or otherwise amongst referees and I’ll concede the point.
For those pointing to Blatter, Platini and other football chiefs taking bribes- that argument works both ways. The system caught them. Not our refs.
It feels like football supporters version of the Loch Ness monster. And I’ll happily concede that exists if there’s indisputable proof.
I will accept this is almost a moot argument. We just have different opinions about the root cause of awful refereeing and VAR.
I don’t think anyone who follows football would disagree it’s crap.
UTW
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64930974
Barcelona’s corruption charges of payments to Dansil 95 span 17yrs Muttleigh. They paid Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira £7.4million when he was vice-president of the technical arbitral committee (CTA).
This went undetected for 17yrs! The digital age has not stopped financial crime, it just requires different skills to avoid detection.
This is La Liga is the second biggest/richest football league in the world.
If can happen there, it can happen here.
Unconscious bias is exactly what refs are trained and paid not to have and i do not believe that referees can be so bad and not be held to account which is what we have atm. Football moves on very quickly, a week later we are all on a fresh page which allows this situation to continue without scrutiny. It’s a disgrace at best and corrupt at worst.
We have a facade of scrutiny with punditry, post match analysis, ref watch etc but nothing on paper, numbers, stats, concise information detailing what happened and when like we do on players. All the big calls are looked at in detail but what about the smaller calls, soft bookings, early bookings, all these things shape a game, proper detailed stats would show up patterns in refereeing that could throw up discrepencies, suspicious patterns, just plain terrible refs or completely vindicate most of them. You say it’s not sexy that’s why it’s not done and to a point i agree as fantasy football and gaming has driven that type of investment but it needs to happen. The game has a vested interest in keeping the globally most popular teams at the top as this keeps the TV money rolling in and the vast majority of anyone who could do something about it is profitting one way or another from the vast sums of money awash in the Prem, effectively everyone is indirectly paid off to never rock the boat. The whole system is like a cartel.
Muttleigh. Every week I read your blogs and find them interesting and usually I am in complete agreement with them. However I can’t agree with your assumption that there can’t be any bad eggs in the referees or VAR and any conspiracy theories go right out of the window
What about what happened to the top brass of FIFA a few years ago. That happened and I’m afraid to say that I think it is possible and at the moment we as a football club are on the wrong end of a lot of decisions Players sent off for approaching the referee. Offsides not given when clearly a good yard offside. The camera that wasn’t switched on to prove that the Wolves player was onside when they scored. How many similar occurrences have there been for other teams this year?
I am in complete agreement with Mikes blog regarding team selection and I am concerned that other teams around us will be able to suck us back in to the trouble area. The next two games are literally to keep our premiership standing
On the point of ‘unconscious bias’, I would clarify that with a situation / context control.
E.g. You see a Toon goalie, returning off a red card suspension, (which may or may not have cost them their 1st silver in 40+ years), patsy it up in the box and flap at Jimi who goes down. You notice 50,000 Toon army chanting ‘We know where you live’ or words to that effect, a bit aggressively, shite yourself, and at the risk of being struck off Alan Shearer’s Chrimbo card list, decide discretion is the better part of valour and don’t award a pen. Your children are safe for the time being.
The ref didn’t have a clear view of Pope taking out Raul but whoever was in the VAR room did. It’s a complete mystery why they didn’t tell the ref to review the footage. I’m not in the conspiracy or backhanders camp but there is an unacceptable level of incompetence with the refs and VAR, which the powers that be seem incapable of resolving. A penalty and a sending off could have had a big impact on the game. That all being said, we again were very inconsistent.
I pray to God (although I shouldn’t really as an old Lefty) that we have enough points on the board before our last game at Arsenal because given our record of VAR /refereeing catastrophes against us it surely will be 14 + VAR v 11 that day. Still struggling to think of any real contenscious VAR decision in our favour since it came in. Can think of loads against us. Including today. Someone just posted on twitter the studs up challenge by Burn today on Neves. Casameiro got sent off for the same for Man utd today. But the bottle jobs we had in charge wouldn’t do anything. Oh. And the free kick for their first goal wasn’t a free kick. I sat watching it on telly live and said that was never a free kick. How come I can see it on TV but the buffoon ref can’t????? Screwed over again. Although I do accept we weren’t very good. Especially first half.
Whoever posted that on Twitter needs to get a pair of glasses. Ridiculous clutching at straws. Let’s just concentrate on the non sending off/penalty which was the real game decider.
Don’t know about that. Burn followed through studs up. He knew what he was doing.
Apparently Tony Harrington, the VAR official, was ‘relatively inexperienced’.
Apparently the referee was the same one who refereed the Cup match at Liverpool.
Apparently, when asked about the penalty decision, Eddie Howe said he had difficulty remembering the incident but it wasn’t a penalty because Raul was going down before any contact was made.
Apparently the shove on Jonny as Newcastle scored their first goal was ‘just a little push’, not anything like a foul.
Apparently, refereeing and VAR decisions even themselves out eventually.
WHEN????!!!!!!!
And apparently every club outside what was “the big 6” but may now be becoming “the “favoured few” have to even things out among themselves.
Yeah same as the new rule came in (for the one and only time) where if a 3rd player approaches the ref it’s a red card. When a Forest defender takes our blokes boot off there is ‘not enough contact’ and yet City away 4 days later the slightest brush with a City defender ‘penalty’. Madeley was the same bloke who gestured to the linesman to put his flag up at Liverpool in the cup with the catastrophic ruling out of a perfectly good goal. I think I am going to go to Stockley Park and have a massive shit outside the front door. Because that is what they are.
If Barcelona can do it, surely Sky Sports can.
I heard the the refs decided to stick with the onfield refs decision as much as possible.
Maybe they should say something before the games start otherwise it just looks like a last minute excuse to screw us.
Well, we certainly rode our luck a bit today. However, it took a fabulous header and a lucky deflection them to score. Both in the same game is also a bit unlucky.
And that penalty? Yet another decision going against us. It may not be cheating, but I have seen other VAR decisions less clear than this one being given to other clubs. Especially top six and London clubs.
Whether it is deliberate cheating or inherent bias, it cannot be possible for us to be on the short end of so many poor VAR decisions.
They cheated!!
I was listening to the sports news on the radio a few days back and they said Ivan Toney of Brentford has a great penalty record scoring 11 out of 11 in the premier league. After the news sunk in I thought how come Brentford who have only been in the premier league for 2 seasons managed 11 penalties . Wolves have been in the premier league for 5 seasons and probably managed half of that total. I remember a penalty awarded to Brentford at Molineux for some routine jostling at a corner. Never seen one given since. Something is wrong. Somewhere. Baggies fans accuse us of ‘victim mentality’ but I can produce a list as long as my arm of legitimate grievances around VAR against us. Today is just the latest load of bollocks.
Yes it was a nailed on penalty but Newcastle were light years better than us for most of the game.
Sometimes the better team wins.
The best team on the pitch won, but Nick Pope should have been off the pitch.
I think we had too many subs at the end of the day and the team couldn’t grasp any cohesion.
Neto definitely unnerved the Toon however, but the thing that definitely unnerves me is our defence playing from the back and long back passes… I hate it!
Oh well, Leeds next. That is most certainly a game we MUST win.
I can’t sleep. OK, I have other matters exercising my noggin but when I do cast those to one side THAT (non) penalty decision creeps back into my mind. Decisions like that, when taken together, will cost Wolves a fortune this season in league standings – the ultimate penalty being relegation.
I do have to concede that Newcastle were the better side but a penalty for Wolves and Pope sent off would have changed the complexion of the game.
Rant over….and off to bed.
I don’t think our referees on and off the pitch are being bribed. I think they’re naturally bent towards big clubs and noisy home crowds, because they know the furore they will cause in the stadium, press and on social media if take a borderline decision that goes AGAINST them. A few unhappy Wolves fans won’t get them sacked, but with a big club the row goes on for days and days, all the partisan Sky commentators ranting away. So they play safe. The smaller clubs suffer. That’s how life is. Yesterday was yet another example. They know a penalty and red card will attract more scrutiny than waving play on. So take the easy (wrong) option again.
Unprofessional then Jonah? In the richest league in the world?
Made a new year resolution to refuse to join in with ref/ var conspiracy shit
Yes a bad call
But after that we were being toasted by Geordie’s
Neto performance gives me hope
Need 4 wins from next 9 games to avoid an agonizing last home game with toffees
Final match at Emirates will be coronation.
So… get the starting line up right !
Stop the dicey crap playing out from Sa!
Play those who will run their legs off and get in the box like hwang
Hope for light
It’s the way these things are reported on national news media as well. An example on radio 5 this morning:
MAN UTD : Eric Ten Haag unhappy with VAR inconsistency after Casameiro sent off.
NEWCASTLE: Eddie Howe urged his players to keep feet on the ground after first win in six.
No mention of Lopetigui being unhappy with VAR inconsistency here.
Clinging on for positives here.
At least Newcastle will have Pope in goal when they face West Ham. Which is a big game for us.
While I would certainly want to dismiss wild theories along the lines of “Lord Lucan found sleeping rough in Badger Dingle”, it is hard to get away from the extent and frequency that public confidence in “thoroughly reliable and unimpeachably honest people and institutions” has been rudely shattered over a number of years. Everyone will probably have their own list, many will include some of these examples ….
Three USA presidents in my lifetime
The Keeper of the Queen’s Picture shown to be a spy
FIFA – you know what I mean!
Football managers liking ‘bungs’ – if you’re old enough, you’ll remember
The Metropolitan Police scandal in the 1960s – a good three part documentary on TV now
Jimmy Saville and many others of a similar nature – couldn’t happen, but, shockingly, they all did.
Etc….etc …..etc
Given the potential financial implications for clubs of any failings in their performance, I would have thought that PGMOL would want to go out of their way to demonstrate that these are actually very minimal – something I’m sure most fans would be very happy with. After all, with all the technical assistance at their disposal, decisions are still made by people, and we all make mistooks.
One way of achieving this would be to introduce something akin to the statistical quality control monitoring that is in wide use in industry. For those unfamiliar with this – it relates deviations from the required standard in terms of how often they are likely to happen. So, if samples of biscuits from a production line are routinely weighed, one (say) three grams over weight might be expected to show up one every three months. If a check shows an odd one, it can be safely ignored – it just happened – but if three are found in one week then something is out of adjustment and must be investigated. It would be a relatively simple job to record the winners and losers of VAR, and possibly other, decisions for routine statistical analysis. This would prevent a lot of unsupported allegations and suspicions and give all involved confidence in the system.
It is always interesting to hear explanations of seemingly dubious decisions from former officials and it might be helpful if this was in some way available on request. For example, I have yet to hear any good reason why the referee in the Toti Gomes fiasco signalled the linesman to raise his flag, when said linesman was walking back to the centre line, apparently happy with a goal that the referee himself was in no position to judge. If the referee had wanted a VAR check, surely he could – or perhaps should be able to – request one himself.
Apologies for going on at length, but it would be wrong to deny that there is an issue, and equally wrong not to use readily available practices to set everyone’s mind at rest.
And of course COYW
The best post ever jazz
Utw
Here’s a take on the non sending off/penalty that I’ve yet to see elsewhere (apologies if someone has already mentioned it).
I think that the officials were biased because they were showing ridiculous sympathy for Pope who only recently was given a red card for a similar incident against Salah. Any other keeper and we might have got the decisions in our favour but don’t hold your breath!
Of course Sea pigeon …
The sympathy factor …
Why have we never thought of that one ..
I know let’s add it to the unending list of “what if’s” to the already bulging, but different rule book for each referee…
I bit tongue in cheek mate but I’m still utterly seething about yesterday officiating…
Fifa corrupt, UEFA corrupt, Qatar corrupt, Man City corrupt and now Barcelona corrupt, but some folks still can’t believe that Premier referees could be corrupt despite one of their very own Mark Halsey actually making a statement saying he was told to say he didn’t see incidents in games. The game is littered with dirty money and corruption but somehow our beloved officials are just unprofesssional and inept at their job, i personally find that much harder to believe than the fact they are corrupt. Inept officials in the richest league in the world of the richest sport in the world, sounds unlikely. Lets hope the Barcelona investigation is the Pandora’s box to the whole rotten to core system.
Gary Hoffman had to resign after giving permission for the Saudi government to take over Newcastle, Qatar were allowed to host the World Cup, strange how these incidents always find a way through despite public exposure of corruption, Man City another example, zero punishment in the end despite overwhelming proof, hang a patsy after the fact, everybody gets to keep their bungs but loses face for a few years. Who cares if you made a £million+, you can live with a bit of soil on your reputation with that kind of money.
Where is the forensic analysis of referees, the most important man on the pitch, in a sport burgeoning with money. Not just how many yellows and reds they dished out, that shows us nothing. When they handed them out is a major factor in shaping a game, if you book a defender early on in a game you render that defender to work at reduced capacity for the rest of the match. We have forensic analysis of every other aspect of the game. Without this analysis and zero accountability means referees can act with impunity. Referees are no different to anybody else and could easily be ‘got at’ by someone with deep enough pockets to find the dirt on them or their family members. Or they could just chuck them a fat backhander. If the Saudi government can kill a dissenting journalist and get away with zero retribution, bribing or blackmailing referees would seen small beans to them.
There comes a time when you say ‘what’s the point’, you’re watching a rigged game anyway.
Corruption in plain sight. If you think it’s a ‘conspiracy theory’ you’re in a coma.
Wow HC that came from the heart and I can only raise my hat to you for being so forthright and for what it’s worth I agree with every word. Of course with all the money swilling around in the PL there is going to be some dodgy business going on – greed. human nature etc, the real question is how deeply is it embedded
One thing for sure. Appointing an ex referee (Howard Webb) with no teeth to police his ex colleagues isn’t going to break the mould.
Totally PJB, there’s no oversight from outside their own ranks. The assumption that referees are above suspicion is an absolute fallacy as is being borne out in the Barca corruption case. It’ll be the tip of the iceberg. Where there’s money there’s dirt and nowhere is that truer than in football.
To quote a Led Zeppelin number – “The Song Remains the Same”.
We are all rightly outraged over the injustice of yesterday’s Poole/Jiminez incident, but it is to a certain extent just papering over the cracks of reality, Newcastle were easily the better side. We need to look at the big picture not a snapshot of a moment at St. James’s Park.
I fully applaud JL’s progress so far for turning a bunch of serial losers into a competitive PL outfit but he is still nowhere near overcoming the issue which has now been ever present for over 3 years – scoring goals. 11 scored in the 12 PL games since he took charge. Yes it’s brought a good points yield so far but I really don’t think that less than a goal per game is the key to survival, specially with all below us picking up unexpected points left, right and centre.
After this weekend’s results it looks as if if any 3 from 9 are relegation fodder. We are only 5 points above the BOTTOM club and most below us have a game in hand. Yes, we have points on the board but I really fear if our lack of firepower remains in our 5 remaining “6 pointers” we probably won’t make it.
I’m afraid I don’t have the answers, I just know our manager’s tactical skills are going to be at a premium for the next 11 matches, but he will have to overcome a problem which should have been successfully addressed long before he landed in Wolverhampton a few weeks ago. We are in this mess because of incompetence, complacency and inertia over 3 years not because of what’s happened under JL in the last 3 months.
Sorry for Poole read Pope.
I think PJB most folks accept we were second best overall yesterday. Myself included. I also share your concerns on our ability to score goals. We would have been slightly fortunate to have emerged with a point yesterday. But we cannot overlook the bottle job by Ref/VAR yesterday. Prominent pundits like Toon fan himself Alan Shearer suggested they were lucky to get away with the non decision. It was 0-0 at the time. Had the widely accepted correct decision been made we may have been 1-0 up with 70 minutes to go against 10 men. Since November you can also add the Guedes non VAR/Ref incident v Arsenal. Same situation. The Liverpool fiasco. The non penalty at Forest. The Lemina fiasco. And now yesterday. I am tired of reading my local paper with the headlines ‘wolves in another VAR controversy’. But the undeniable common denominator in EVERY SINGLE COMTROVERSY is Wolves are 100% ALWAYS on the wrong end of it. ALWAYS. I for one am sick of it. I am sure the players and manager is too. In fact J Lo must wonder what he is up against every week.
Alan Shearer would ‘suggest’ that after we were denied the pen. Bet he wouldn’t be so ‘generous’ had we got it and gone on to win 5-1. 1 lv.
Well said Cheesy! To paraphrase Mario from Man C, and tweaked slightly, “Why always us?
The VAR decisions always go against us, ALWAYS! But to hell with them, we will survive! And we will be back stronger! It’s us against them and we will never give up! We shall rise from the VAR ashes and next season we scare the living daylights out all of them.
We will take it out on Leeds on Saturday!!
The bookies are a pretty shrewd bunch and their Premier relegation odds make interesting reading. They reckon seven other clubs are more likely than Wolves to be relegated.Best odds currently available are as follows:
Southampton 8/13
Bournemouth 8/11
Forest 7/5
Everton 6/4
Leeds 13/8
Leicester 7/2
West Ham 9/2
Wolves 6/1
So, if you’re really worried, £10 at 6/1 and you can drown your sorrows in the event of the unthinkable and buy the missus a nice bunch of flowers.
Thanks for that Bilko, you’re spot on the bookies usually call it right and your post will help me sleep easier. But to make them right we need to score some bloody goals and I’m still not sure even JL has worked out where to find them.
ps. Would never in principle bet against The Wolves..
Surely the money taken on a team dictate the odds Bilko. If everyone punts on a team then the odds shorten as more people bet on them so the bookies don’t take a hit.
That’s an interesting point HC and I’m not certain which is correct. It’s probably some of each.I follow the odds regularly out of interest but rarely bet nowadays.The odds are reset after games are played and I think they reflect the bookies opinions more than weight of money. The odds are set so that the bookies can’t lose anyway. It would take a very large bet to change the picture and in my past experience the bookies refuse to take a large bet if it puts them in a serious losing position. On Oddschecker’s website they have recent betting trends. There have been relatively few bets on Southampton and Wolves recently but their odds haven’t changed much. Interesting subject.
Bad news. After the weekend games the PPG safety line is now up to 36 points. And allowing for swings in goal difference I will add 1 more point and say 37. Previous 4 weeks it has been at 34/35. The obvious factor this weekend is everyone in the bottom 3 gained points. Either win or draw. So in terms of our survival I will say 3 wins and 1 draw will see us home at the moment.
There’s an old Arab proverb,
‘Life’s like a cucumber, one minute it’s in your hand, the next minute it’s up your arse.’
It was always going to be a tuff ask at the Saudi fuelled Toon, never mind the bollox. Jimi should have fought Pope off the ball, you can’t rely on the officials to give you the game. We could have scrapped a point, we didn’t. Move on.
Would’ve loved the trauma of Pope’s 2nd red card though. The nation has been denied Shearer spitting feathers. Wot larks.
Margins are getting tighter down the bottom, still I’d rather we beat teams than relied on VAR. Or get better at cheating ourselves as a last resort. We WILL find a way to preserve our Prem status, officials or no officials.
1 lv & COYW.
Thanks RW, your post made me laugh out loud and brightened up a miserable week.
You raise a good point regarding Jimi’s limp response to Pope’s challenge- is it any wonder we went 12 months without a goal from a striker? Raul was looking for the contact when he should have braced for it and gone for goal. You could say the same for the debatable challenges on Nunes and Guedo in recent months which were also waved away by the Referee.
Would the Doog, Bully or SEB have been brushed away so easily, I don’t think so. We have a squad of lightweight forwards who drop at the first hint of contact and Wolves probably have a reputation with officials who won’t give us anything. We need battlers to scrap for points against fellow strugglers- like others have said, I’m not sure we have enough.
They all do that chap. Every single club does it yet somehow manage to get soft penalties/ VAR decisions. We don’t even get proper penalties never mind soft ones. Like Wham got v Villa. Brentford get loads. Someone made a remark on another Wolves forum. In the last 4 seasons Wolves have been awarded 13 penalties. In the same timeframe Man Utd have been awarded 42. And that is when they have not been very good.
To all those apologists who believe that that some referees “just didn’t get it right” or VAR “wasn’t” called in” etc please note that FC Barcelona have tonight been charged with paying out £6.4 million in inducements to referees “associate companies”.
It couldn’t possibly happen here could it?
Nine games left to play this season.
Last season we took 5 points from our last nine games, one win, 2 draws.
Add those 5 points to the 27 we already have that’s 32 points from 38 games.
On the 18th March last year we played Leeds at home and lost 3-2.
On the 18th of March this year we play Leeds at home again.
If we lose this game, I’m really not confident that this group of players have the fortitude to scrap it out in a relegation dogfight.
Final thought; Lopetegui lost 5 of his last 8 games at Seville.
Hope I’m wrong, but I’ve got a bad, bad feeling about the season’s end.
If we are gonna play out an exact mirror image of last season Beowulf does that also mean we stay up?
That sould read 8 points from our last 11 games last season; so add that to the 27 points this season = 35 points, if we repeat that this year, not sure if that will be enough.
To compound the misery. Just seen Man City ‘penalty’ . It really is laughable that gets given as a penalty. I really do wonder what we are up against.
I watched the full game in Australia via Optus Sports. We took the coverage with Shearer at half time.
Yesterday I wanted to look at the penalty incident again. There were 4 options to choose.
I watched the 3 min highlights – penalty incident not shown
I watched the 9 minute extended highlights – penalty incident not shown
I watched the 24 minute mini match – penalty incident not shown
The full match replay obviously did show it.
Apparently the incident was not deemed significant enough to be included in any of the other packages? I don’t know who edits the packages, but it is very weird that it was edited out of all the options except full game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN3SZT2b8Xg
Here you go Cheesy.
Look at the movement of Popes shoulder when they come together. You can see the impact of the collision.
Ash!
Cheers HC. Now it’s in Full Colour for all to see.
52k views in 3 days. Not bad.
We just need to archive these appalling decisions on a Villains Reel, and then take them to Court.
Why isn’t Jimi booked for diving? Pope has clearly lost the ball, there is enough contact.
Disgusted of WWFC. 1 lv
England squad just announced. Conor Coady is not in it. I can’t help feeling his requested move to Everton (to protect his England place) has backfired on him. Lopetegui would have appreciated his experience and captaincy.